Chapter 6
Click.
The CEO's office door closed.
...Phew.
I leaned back against the chair and let out a long breath.
It was over. Really over.
The interviews that had dragged on for hours had finally come to an end.
"I can breathe again."
People had been coming in nonstop ever since the meeting ended.
Every one of them had asked me to reduce their disciplinary action.
At first, I thought they were genuinely remorseful.
But when I got down to it, hardly any of them were.
‘Please, just let me off this once. I'll repay you with my body.’
‘I thought you, of all people, would understand, Mr. CEO.’
‘If you could let this one slide, as a sign of my sincerity...’
Eventually, people even started begging for leniency in ways that defied common sense.
For most of the women, taking off their shirts as soon as they came in seemed to be standard procedure.
What even was this world inside an eroge?
"Hmm...."
Even Assistant Manager Park So-young, who'd just come by, had initially made me wonder if she was here for that.
Fortunately, she wasn't.
Of course, she'd misunderstood something on her own partway through.
At least she hadn't tried to cross the line as blatantly as the people who'd come before her.
She genuinely wanted to save her boyfriend.
Her method was wrong, but I could understand how she felt.
‘At least she was someone I could reason with.’
I remembered her bewildered expression and chuckled.
At least she'd listened to me all the way through.
I hoped there'd be more sensible employees like her.
I wasn't completely unreasonable, either.
For a conscientious employee like Assistant Manager Park So-young, I was willing to leave room for negotiation.
‘I feel like I'm the only person with both eyes in a village of one-eyed people.’
Was I the strange one, or was this world's common sense always like this?
People who'd committed corruption but tried seduction instead of remorse.
After dealing with the same thing for hours, I was starting to feel like everyone thought I was the weird one.
Even amid all that, Park So-young was different.
She'd misunderstood, but listened to me to the end and earnestly accepted the terms of the deal.
‘In the end, the company must be surviving thanks to people like her.’
There were embezzlers and sycophants.
But there were also employees who quietly did their part.
If I could protect people like them, then all this trouble was worth it.
"...No one else is coming in now, right?"
I couldn't even remember how many people I'd dealt with today alone.
Thanks to that, I hadn't been able to look at a single document properly.
Only then did I feel like I might finally get a breather.
That's when it happened.
"...Hm?"
A translucent window suddenly flickered across my vision.
Come to think of it, status-window notifications had been popping up for a while.
I'd been so hectic I hadn't had a chance to check them.
"Status window."
Ding.
A blue window appeared before my eyes with a familiar sound effect.
【Notification】
【You have acquired NTR Points】
…
【NTR Points +300】
[Deputy General Manager Bae Yun-hak's slush fund has been confiscated.]
【NTR Points +500】
[Managing Director Yun Seong-hyeok's foreign car has been seized.]
【NTR Points +200】
[Some of the embezzled assets have been returned to the company.]
"...What?"
My hazy mind snapped back to attention.
I jumped to my feet and checked the messages one by one.
"...Ha."
I let out a hollow laugh.
"This is incredible."
I never expected this to count as NTR, too.
After thinking it over for a moment, I managed to make a rough guess about how the status window's judgment system worked.
‘Taking something away.’
I thought that, since this was an eroge, it only applied to taking a woman—someone else's lover—away from them.
But it seemed the system cared more about the act itself.
Property, status, power, honor, and so on.
It seemed to award points for the act of taking something away, converting them into NTR Points.
"...If that's the case..."
I murmured, stroking my stubbly chin.
It meant I didn't have to go after someone else's woman like in the original.
Recovering an embezzler's slush fund.
Seizing a foreign car from an executive who'd committed corruption.
Stripping someone of a position they'd obtained unjustly.
Even doing things like that earned points.
"..."
After a brief silence, I smiled.
"I like this."
I could earn points in a much more wholesome way than I'd expected.
Maybe I'd found a way to make proper use of the system.
*
After concluding her negotiation with Kang Tae-seong, Assistant Manager Park So-young returned to her desk.
A mountain of paperwork was waiting for her.
Those documents proved that what had happened just moments ago hadn't been a dream, but reality.
‘He told me to do as much work as Jun-ho oppa...’
Park So-young stood there blankly for a moment, then picked up the approval document on top.
Organizing performance evaluation materials.
This much was familiar.
But beneath it were a host of tasks she'd never seen before.
New organizational restructuring plans.
Reviewing temporary personnel appointments.
Reassigning employees under audit.
Even tasks that required coordinating with other departments.
"...All of this?"
It wasn't a workload one person could reasonably handle.
For a moment, her head spun.
But she couldn't run away.
‘I can do this.’
Park So-young gritted her teeth.
First, she spread an organizational chart across one side of her desk.
She checked each of the newly reorganized departments and teams, familiarizing herself with the unfamiliar names.
For work she didn't understand, she looked through the company regulations.
If she still didn't understand, she went to a senior colleague and asked carefully.
"Excuse me, which department should I coordinate with on this?"
"You need to go through the Audit Office first."
"Ah... Thank you."
She emailed the Audit Office and called the other departments.
After reviewing the revised materials, she prepared a new approval document.
At first, her hands trembled.
Taking on unfamiliar work was far more stressful than she'd expected.
She made a few mistakes, too.
There were documents she had to recall because she'd set the approval chain incorrectly, and others she'd had to resubmit because she'd forgotten an attachment.
Each time, her heart sank, but...
"...It's okay."
She took a deep breath and carefully checked everything again from the beginning.
As time passed, the pile of paperwork gradually began to shrink.
The tasks that had seemed impossible to even touch at first were getting finished one by one.
‘...I can do this, too.’
A small but strange sense of accomplishment welled up in her chest.
"So-young."
The employee at the desk beside hers stood up.
"I'm heading out first."
"Okay! Have a good night."
"Don't overdo it. See you tomorrow."
One by one, people left, and the office lights went out one after another.
Park So-young looked around for a moment.
Normally, this was the time when employees from several teams would still be working overtime.
But today was different.
Most people left right on time.
No one stayed behind out of concern for what others might think.
‘The atmosphere really has changed a lot...’
Since the organizational restructuring, the company had been changing little by little.
People only worked overtime when it was necessary.
Unnecessary reports were being cut down, and a culture of recognizing people according to their performance was taking root.
Park So-young had been frantically typing away at her keyboard, and it was only much later that she looked at the clock.
"...Already?"
Night had fallen.
Outside the window, the sky had turned pitch-black before she knew it.
Park So-young registered the last approval document in the system.
[Approval request successfully registered.]
"...Phew."
Park So-young leaned back in her chair.
She was exhausted.
But she felt proud.
The pile of paperwork had visibly dwindled.
“I should... head home, too.”
Park So-young gathered her things and left the office.
*
‘Still, I'm glad things worked out.’
As she packed her bag and left the company, her thoughts turned to what had happened during the day.
-...There is one way.
Her heart had dropped at those words.
But then.
-...Assistant Manager Park, button up your shirt.
-That's not what I meant.
The expressionless look on his face at the time.
The way he'd quickly turned his head as if he'd seen something he shouldn't have.
‘...Honestly.’
Park So-young pouted.
"What's with him turning me down, of all people?"
It had certainly been a good thing.
If CEO Kang Tae-seong had accepted her offer, she would have lost her cherished virginity.
It really was for the best.
Even so, for some reason, a corner of her heart felt strangely ticklish.
‘It's not like anyone's ever called me unattractive.’
No, what on earth are you thinking?
Park So-young shook her head vigorously.
‘I must be crazy.’
She'd been spared having to sully her body.
And yet the fact that she'd been rejected was somehow bothering her.
It was an emotion even she couldn't understand.
It was just then, as she walked down an alley with her mind in turmoil.
"Hey, wait."
An unfamiliar voice called out.
Park So-young stopped walking.
Two men were blocking the entrance to the alley.
One had dyed his hair blond and wore a leather jacket, while the other was a hulking man with a thick gold chain around his neck.
They looked like thugs, plain and simple.
"Where are you going, miss?"
"Could we talk for a minute?"
Park So-young instinctively took a step back.
"...Please move."
"Aw, don't be like that, huh?"
The two men slowly closed in.
The alley was dark and deserted.
Since it was well past quitting time, there wasn't anyone passing by.
Her heart began to pound.
"Don't come any closer."
Park So-young spoke in a trembling voice.
"I-I'm going to call the police."
The man with the gold chain let out a mocking laugh.
"Heh-heh. Call them? Go ahead, try it."
“Before that, you can play with us for a bit.”
One step. Then another.
Park So-young realized she had nowhere left to retreat.
Just as she squeezed her eyes shut in despair—
Thump.
A large hand clamped tightly around the wrist of the man with the gold chain.
"...What?"
The man turned around, startled.
A massive shadow loomed beneath the streetlight.
A low, deep voice echoed through the alley.
"What are you doing?"
Park So-young's eyes widened.
"...Boss?"
It was Kang Tae-seong.